5eY  w> 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


DUTY-  OF 


Kaitli  ai)d  Ki|largeri|ei|t 


IN  THIS  WORK. 


A SERMON 


PREACHED  DECEMBER  7,  1ST:},  IN  THE  JOHN  STREET 
CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH,  LOWELL,  MASS. 


By  EDEN  B.  FOSTER,  D.  D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


V V 


LOWELL,  MASS.: 

STOKE,  1 1 USE  & CO.,  BOOK  AND  JOB  PRINTERS.  No.  21  CENTRA!.  STREET. 

1 S74. 


■°\ 


\v^\ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/foreignmissionsdOOfost 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


DUTY  OF 


Faitli  ai(d  Ki|Uiri>en\ei|t 


IN  THIS  WORK. 


A SERMON 


PREACHED  DECEMBER  7,  187:5,  IN'  THE  JOHN'  STREET 
CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH,  LOWELL,  MASS. 


By  EDEN  B.  FOSTER,  I).  D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


LOWELL,  MASS.: 

STONE,  I1USE  & CO.,  BOOK  AND  JOB  PRINTERS,  No.  21  CENTRAL  STREET 

18  7 1. 


REQUEST 


Rev.  Eden  B.  Foster,  D.D.,  Pastor  John  Street  Congregational 
Ciiurch,  Lowell,  Mass.: 

Dear  Sir, — Believing  that  your  recent  sermon  upon  Missions 
is  too  valuable  a document,  both  to  the  cause  of  Missions  and  the  general 
public,  to  have  its  influence  confined  to  your  own  congregation,  the  under- 
signed would  respectfully  solicit  a copy  for  publication. 


Jefferson  Bancroft, 
Geo.  Stevens, 

Wm.  H.  Anderson, 
John  J.  Pray, 

.J.  C.  Wing, 

David  T.  Kimball, 
John  S.  Colby, 
Wm.  A.  Read, 

S.  G.  Bailey, 
Charles  H.  Conant, 
< I.  Hood, 

Clias.  W.  Brown, 
William  F.  Eno, 
Geo.  II.  Ames, 

A.  L.  Brooks, 
Josiah  Gates, 

R.  Rogers, 

Jas.  A.  Harvey, 

D.  McNair, 

J.  J.  Judkins, 


N.  C.  Sanborn, 

John  Tripp, 

G.  T.  Williams, 
Edwin  Sanborn, 
Aaron  Blanchard, 

A.  Davis, 

David  Chase, 

Abner  Kittredge, 

P.  F.  Litchfield, 
Samuel  Kidder, 

Wm.  H.  Carter, 

C.  II.  Abbott, 

Clias.  H.  Richardson, 
Sami.  G.  Davis, 

J.  Kittredge, 

Chan i ling  Whitaker, 
P.  I).  Edmunds, 

Robt.  Read, 

S.  Wood, 

Samuel  Denny, 


George  Choate, 
James  M.  Howe, 
Wm.  Morey, 

J.  W.  Pratt, 

Wm.  Brown, 

Robt.  L.  Read, 

B.  C.  Benner, 

J.  L.  Sargent, 

J.  C.  Bachelder, 
Charles  Hubbard, 
L.  T.  Worthley, 
W.  H.  Choate, 

El.  B.  Adams, 

L.  R.  S.  F.dmands, 

C.  C.  Barnes, 

Wm.  P.  Eno, 

1.  B.  Wliittemore, 
Daniel  Holt, 

James  Gibson, 
George  M.  Elliott. 


SEE  M O X. 


Text. — Isaiah  lxii:  1,  2.  “For  Zion’s  sake  I will  not  hold,  my  peace;  and  for 
Jerusalem’s  sake  I will  not  rest  till  the  righteousness  thereof  go  forth  as 
brightness,  and  the  salvation  thereof  as  a lamp  that  burnetii.  And  the 
Gentiles  shall  see  thy  righteousness,  and  all  kings  thy  glory.” 


We  have  no  cause  for  discouragement  in  the  missionary 
work.  We  are  very  apt  to  estimate  the  energy  of  truth 
and  the  power  of  God  by  human  methods,  and  therefore  to 
doubt.  We  attempt  to  measure  the  might  of  Jehovah  by 
the  finite  boundaries  of  human  agencies  and  mortal  thought. 
We  think  that  God  cannot  see  through  the  darkness  because 
our  sight  fails.  We  think  tli  it  God  cannot  conquer  difficulties 
because  our  strength  is  inadequate.  We  fear  that  the  enmity 
and  the  ingenuity  and  t he  numbers  of  God’s  foes  will  baffle 
the  divine  plans,  forgetting  that  the  gospel,  though  defence- 
less and  alone,  has  often  triumphed  against  all  the  resources 
of  earth  and  fell.  The  power  of  God  is  not  to  be  reduced 
within  the  formulas  of  our  arithmetic,  or  expressed  by  any 
known  or  unknown  quantities  of  our  mathematics.  It  is 
competent  for  our  science  to  weigh  the  earth  and  measure 
the  stars.  We  can  compute  the  exact  and  reciprocal 
influence  between  one  planet  and  another.  We  can  calcu- 
late the  power  of  the  waterfall  which  drives  our  machinery. 
We  can  estimate  the  force  of  the  moon’s  attraction  when 
she  lifts  the  heaving  tides.  We  can  measure  the  subtle 
energy  of  gravitation,  and  divide  it  off  into  pounds  and 


4 


ounces  avoirdupois.  We  can  circumscribe  t lie  expansive 
force  of  steam  within  bolts  and  bars  and  make  it  labor  for 
our  behoof.  We  can  chain  the  still  more  latent,' expansive, 
explosive  agency  of  electricity,  and  make  the  lightning  walk 
in  appointed  courses,  and  go  at  our  bidding,  and  come  at  our 
call.  We  can  yoke  the  wind  to  our  ships,  and  sailing  into 
the  face  of  the  storm,  make  even  adverse  gales  convey  us 
to  our  destined  harbor.  We  can  compute,  regulate, 
control  the  elements  of  earth  and  of  air.  But  we  cannot 
measure  the  moral  power  of  God.  Here  our  methods  of 
calculation  are  inappropriate ; reason  is  incompetent,  and 
figures  fail.  Our  only  true  method  of  judging  of  this 
power  is,  by  the  declarations  of  God  himself,  and  by  the 
lights  of  history.  The  promises  of  the  Divine  Revelation 
are  explicit,  and  we  have  some  criteria  for  estimating  the 
resistless  might  of  God’s  truth  and  the  conquering  energy 
of  His  Spirit,  when  we  remember  what  revolutions  in  society 
and  what  transformations- of  character  have  been  wrought 
bv  these  instrumentalities.  I propose  in  this  discourse  to 
consider  some  reasons  for  an  increase  of  faith  and  for  an 
enlargement  of  work  in  the  foreign  missionary  cause. 

I.  EVIDENCES  FOR  FAITH. 

1.  As  an  evidence  for  faith  we  may  look  at  the  universal 
law,  that  the  natural  and  the  supernatural  are  to  work 
together  and  in  harmony,  in  order  to  produce  important 
spiritual  results.  All  church  operations,  and  missionary 
labors  especially,  have  a wide  domain  of  action  and  sacrifice, 
where  you  must  walk  by  faith.  You  put  vour  money  into 
the  bank  of  trust.  You  put  your  fatigues,  vour  self-denials 
and  your  prayers  into  the  bank  of  faith.  You  expect  that 
God,  bv  the  power  of  truth  and  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  will  bring  in  results  beyond  the  natural  agency  of 


human  moans.  You  uso  means,  and  God  requires  you  to 
use  them  prudently,  and  with  eareful  study  of  the  relations 
of  cause  and  efiect.  You  are  not  to  overlook  nor  to  under- 
value tin'  probable  and  natural  consequences  of  your  action. 
You  have  so  much  cash  invested.  You  have  so  many  men 
and  women  working  in  the  missionary  field.  You  have  so 
manv  printing  presses  and  so  many  schools.  ^ oil  have  a cer- 
tain amount  of  scholarship,  and  mental  power,  and  executive 
ability  in  your  missionaries.  You  have  a home  board,  with 
its  corporate  members,  sagacious  and  wise;  with  its  secre- 
taries, unwearied  in  labor;  with  its  prudential  committee 
and  other  officers,  deeply  interested  in  their  work,  and 
working  with  an  intelligent  and  manly  efficiency.  You  have 
a united  body  of  churches  standing  behind  the  board, 
pledged  by  every  honorable  guarantee  to  their  help.  You 
know  where  ships  and  railroads  and  telegraph  wires  and  ten 
thousand  other  inventions  will  help  you.  You  know  where 
the  powerful  governments  of  the  world  will  back  you. 
You  know  where  books,  and  laws,  and  civilization,  and  the 
silent  force  of  genius  will  come  in  as  your  auxiliaries.  All 
these  are  instrumentalities  which  in  large  degree  you  can 
measure.  They  lie  within  the  reach  of  your  arm,  within 
the  control  of  your  will.  Use  them.  Use  them  patiently, 
courageously,  wisely,  and  to  the  end.  Hut  there  is  a power 
above  and  beyond,  which  you  cannot  measure.  There  is  a 
field  for  faith,  higher  and  wider  than  the  field  for  human 
discernment,  higher  and  wider  than  the  field  of  natural  laws. 
There  is  an  omnipotence  of  God  involved  in  this  missionary 
work.  There  is  a forgiveness  of  sins,  there  is  a transforma- 
tion of  moral  character,  there  is  a breaking  of  the  chains  of 
depravity,  and  this  is  the  work  of  God.  There  is  a mighty 
and  mysterious  action  and  influence  moving  upon  human 
wills,  above  the  energy  of  argument,  or  pathos,  or  poetry, 
or  eloquence.  There  are  strong  and  crashing  blows  upon 


6 


the  fortifications  of  custom,  idolatry,  infidelity  ; it  is  the 
interposition  of  a supernatural  force.  Whole  nations  are  to 
be  lifted  up  out  of  sensuality  and  bondage.  Whole  empires 
are  to  be  revolutionized  out  of  the  tyranny  of  passion,  out 
of  the  gulf  of  degradation,  out  of  the  chains  which  satan 
has  woven  and  welded  around  them  for  thousands  of  years. 
It  is  a divine  accomplishment.  Betake  thee,  0 Christian, 
to  prayer.  Invoke  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Be  not  con- 
fident in  your  own  right  arm.  Be  not  elated  with  vain 
reliances  and  self-hopes.  Be  assured,  God  will  help  you  if 
you  believe.  If  your  desires  are  kindled  and  are  on  fire 
with  the  love  of  Christ,  if  your  waking  hours  and  your 
sleeping  dreams  are  thrilled  with  yearnings  and  with 
plannings  for  the  millennial  glory,  God  will  give  you  the 
souls  of  the  heathen. 

There  are  some  laws  here,  in  this  pure  and  blessed  work 
of  philanthropy,  which  do  not  work  in  manufactures,  and 
chemistry,  and  optics.  They  do  not  conflict  with  them,  still 
they  are  above  the  laws  of  light,  and  of  heat,  and  of  the 
atmosphere.  They  are  imponderable  and  invisible  forces. 
They  cannot  be  brought  into  the  Massachusetts  or  Boott 
Corporation,  and  made  to  work  within  the  circumference  of 
a wheel  and  under  a belt  of  leather.  They  cannot  be  mani- 
pulated and  weighed,  as  you  will  dissolve  a rock  in  the 
crucible,  or  weigh  a pound  of  sugar  in  the  store.  Their 
action  is  spiritual.  Their  tests  are  in  tin'  souls  of  men. 
Their  results  run  through  centuries  and  through  nations; 
they  are  in  the  deep  aflections  of  the  heart ; they  are  in  the 
overthrow  of  hoary  superstitions ; they  are  in  the  songs  of 
the  glorified.  We  think  we  have  some  evidences  of  the 
grandeur  of  this  spiritual  work,  quite  as  conclusive  as  tin; 
setting  up  of  a prayer- gauge  in  the  hospital.  We  have  the 
proof  in  the  wonders  <f  the  apostolic  age;  in  the  Reforma- 
tion of  the  fifteenth  century ; in  the  lifting  up  of  England  out 


I 


of  Druid  superstitions;  in  the  triumph  of  Puritanism  and 
Freedom  in  America ; in  Whitefieldian  and  Edwardian 
revivals  ; in  the  rapid  and  conquering  advance  of  Christian 
thought  over  the  wide  globe.  We  have  these  evidences, 
clear  as  the  light  of  day,  in  the  specific  work  of  Missions. 
There  are  fifty-six  missionary  societies,  drawn  from  all  the 
evangelical  denominations  of  Christendom.  They  employ 
twenty  thousand  ordained  missionaries.  They  have  eighty 
thousand  native  helpers — not  simply  church  members,  but 
those  whose  piety  is  of  a marked  type,  who  are  educated 
thoroughly'  for  evangelical  work,  and  are  dedicated  wholly 
to  that  work.  These  fifty-six  societies  are  expending  five 
millions  of  dollars  yearly  tor  the  diffusion  of  God’s  truth. 
Every  nation  of  the  world  is  accessible  to  them, — every 
tribe  of  men  is  influenced  by  them. 

We  have  these  evidences  for  faith  in  the  constant  help 
and  strength  which  science  renders  to  religion  and  to  the 
cause  of  missions.  Let  the  student  devote  his  days  and 
nights  to  the  careful  observations  of  nature  and  the  deep 
meditations  of  truth.  Let  Hugh  Miller,  the  stone-mason, 
explore  among  the  rocks  until  the  yvhole  science  of  the  old 
red  sandstone  and  of  God’s  workmanship  in  building  the 
yvorld  dawns  upon  his  mind.  No  Development  theory,  no  law 
of  Evolution  and  Natural  Selection,  no  conjectures  as  to 
Vestiges  of  Creation,  no  arrogant  assumptions  of  Positivism, 
no  system  of  Fatalism,  woven  out  of  winds,  and  snows,  and 
barren  sands,  and  mountains,  and  prairies,  and  running 
streams,  shall  eyTer  break  the  chain  of  evidence,  which  the 
cromarty  mason  has  forged,  to  shoyv  the  personal  will  of  God. 
Let  Janies  Watt  yvateh  the  boiling  yvater  and  the  bubbling 
steam,  experimenting  with  that  marvellous  engine — the  tea- 
kettle— until  laws  of  condensation  and  expansion  are  clear 
before  him,  and  a neyv  force  has  been  brought  into  the  world 
to  yvork  for  commerce  and  for  manufactures  and  for  the  arts  of 


8 


men,  and  with  a still  more  stupendous  power  and  a still  more 
undeniable  success,  to  work  for  Missions  and  for  Christ.  It 
is  not  simply  in  the  factory,  where  force  is  needed  to  spin, 
and  weave,  and  polish,  and  forge  ; it  is  not  simply  in  carrying 
vast  freightages  of  agricultural  products  and  commercial 
exchanges,  that  this  pliable  and  giant  energy  is  used ; but 
it  carries  the  missionary  to  his  distant  post,  it  conveys  to 
barbarism  the  instruments  of  civilization,  it  cheapens  and 
facilitates  methods  of  education,  it  brings  the  heathen  into 
association  with  truth,  refinement  and  moral  puiity,  it 
diffuses  knowledge,  freedom  and  salvation  over  the  earth. 
Co  on,  in  your  deep  investigations,  0 student  of  science. 
Go  on,  in  your  careful  analysis  of  cause  and  effect,  of  phe- 
nomena and  law,  thou  keen  experimenter  in  chemistry  and 
geology,  and  in  the  nature  of  heat  and  light.  Go  on,  with 
thy  telescopic  views  of  sun  and  planets,  with  thy  parallaxes 
and  thy  triangles,  0 thou  explorer  among  the  stars.  Go  on, 
thou  deep  and  patient  reader  of  the  soul,  immersed  in  meta- 
physical discoveries,  bringing  history,  and  biography,  and 
political  changes  to  unveil  the  laws  of  mind,  marshalling  in 
their  order  the  inner  powers  of  reason  and  of  will.  Go  on, 
thou  enthusiast  in  art,  with  thy  saw  and  plane,  with  thy 
chisel  and  mallet,  with  thy  pencil  and  brush,  with  thy 
harmony  of  sweet  sounds — all  this  i,s  for  intellectual 
discipline  and  social  refinement,  but  far  more  for  Christ,  the 
Leader  of  sciences  and  the  Saviour  of  men — far  more,  far 
more,  for  the  recovery  of  apostate  nations  and  the 
redemption  of'  heathen  souls;  far  more,  far  move  for  the  joy 
of  death-beds  and  the  final  jubilee  of  Heaven.  Natural 
philosophy  may  invent  the  mariner’s  compass,  but  it 
shall  guide  the  path  of  the  missionary  to  the  end  of 
the  earth.  Natural  philosophy  may  bless  the  Yankee 
with  ploughs,  and  reapers,  and  sewing  machines;  but  it 
shall  bless  tin;  wild  Indian  also,  the  rude  Hottentot,  the 


tawny  Arab,  the  ferocious  Kaffrc  with  the  implements  of 
industry  and  the  arts  of  peace.  The  child  of  labor,  in  his 
unpretentious  handicraft,  may  toil  over  rushes  and  rags  and 
ropes  and  straw.  You  may  think  him  low  in  his  occupation, 
narrow  in  his  thought;  but  that  industry  shall  be  changed 
into  books,  shall  be  enlarged  into  libraries,  shall  feed  the 
knowledge  of  the  world,  shall  awaken  and  illuminate  the 
dormant  faculties  of  ten  thousand  thousand  pagan  souls. 
Thus  Christ  sits  at  the  helm  and  guides  the  world — its 
physical  forces,  as  well  as  its  spiritual;  its  sciences,  as  well 
as  its  prayers.  All  laws  of  matter,  occult  energies  that  are 
hiding  out  of  sight,  strange  discoveries  and  grand  activities 
of  human  genius  are  obedient  to  His  will.  lie  is  bringing 
in  reforms.  Light  is  streaming  from  a thousand  fountains. 
Peace  and  purity  are  dwelling  among  a thousand  tribes. 
Songs  of  thanksgiving  are  heard  from  millions  of  tongues. 
Fetters  of  despotism,  and  fetters  of  inward  depravity,  are 
breaking  on  a thousand  shores.  We  may  cherish  gladness 
and  exercise  faith,  for  Christ,  the  Divine  physician,  is  walking 
abroad,  and  with  his  supernatural  touch  is  removing  the 
leprosy  of  sin  and  the  paralysis  of  death.  The  world  is  the 
hospital.  Every  mission  station  is  a ward.  Unnumbered 
souls  are  the  patients,  for  whom  we  pray.  The  emancipa- 
tion of  earth  from  spiritual  darkness  and  the  praises  of 
Heaven  shall  be  the  evidence  that  God  hears  prayer. 

2.  As  an  evidence  for  faith,  we  may  notice  some  points 
in  our  own  early  history.  The  colonization  of  this  country 
was  a missionary  work,  and  in  it  God  has  manifested  the 
interpositions  of  his  power.  God  planted  here  a beautiful 
vine,  lie  cast  out  the  heathen  that  he  might  plant  it.  He 
gave  it  the  region  of  temperate  airs,  of  various  scenery,  of 
fertile  soil,  of  abundant  fruits.  He  gave  it  mines  of  gold 
for  exchanges,  and  stratified  coal  for  fuel,  and  mountains  for 
sublimity,  and  rivers  for  manufactures,  and  hills  for  the 


10 


development  of  health,  and  prairies  for  a larger  industry, 
and  ocean  coasts  for  commerce,  lie  caused  it  to  take  dee}) 
root,  and  to  send  out  its  branches  from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf, 
and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  He  saved  us  from  the 
plots  of  Romanism  through  Spanish  dev  ices  on  the  South, 
and  French  aggression  on  the  North,  lie  saved  us  from  the 
domination  of  monarchy,  under  English  rule,  and  made  us 
a Republic,  lie  saved  us  from  the  anarchy  of  broken 
provinces,  in  the  early  history  of  our  constitution,  and  in 
the  latter  history  of  the  rebellion.  He  has  made  our  history 
one  of  liberty  and  of  law  conjoined,  in  such  proportions  as 
a thoughtful  and  self-controlled  people  might  desire.  He 
has  given  to  our  people  the  inventive  mind,  the  persevering 
will,  the  adventurous  spirit,  which  enable  them  to  use  their 
advantages ; to  strike  out  new  methods  of  enterprise ; to 
subdue  the  wilderness ; to  subjugate  the  rivers  and  the 
winds  and  heat  and  electricity ; to  tunnel  the  mountains ; 
to  disembowel  the  hills  and  bring  the  precious  metals  out  of 
their  depths  ; to  weave  a network  of  travel  and  thought 
over  the  land  and  through  the  air;  to  explore  the  frigid 
zone  for  fisheries  and  the  tropic  zone  for  spices ; to  bring 
out  the  riches  of  all  arable  fields ; to  send  out  our  colonies, 
like  the  tents  of  the  Arabs,  in  every  direction,  with  this 
great  difference, — that  our  migratory  tents  are  not  transient, 
but  are  soon  changed  into  permanent  and  beautiful  dwellings, 
into  prosperous  and  gorgeous  cities. 

God  has  given  us  blessings  greater  than  these.  Our 
material  advancement  is  marvellous,  but  is  less  than  our 
intellectual  and  spiritual.  God  sifted  three  kingdoms  that 
He  might  plant  here  the  choicest  wheat.  The  best 
representatives  of  English  non-conformity,  of  Huguenot 
consecration,  of  Lutheran  courage  found  here  their  home. 
Puritanism  (a  word  never  to  be  spoken  except  with  reverence 
and  admiring  love)  exalted  our  institutions.  The  Bible  was 


1 1 


the  rock  on  which  our  foundations  were  laid.  The  right  of 
private  judgment;  independent  thinking;  plain  living; 
diligent  toil ; the  subjugation  of  sensuality;  faith  in  a cru- 
cified Redeemer ; sympathy  with  human  life;  reverence  for 
man’s  high  powers;  hope  of  progress;  hope  of  Heaven — 
these  have  been  our  characteristics.  We  have  maintained  a 
system  of  free  education  and  the  power  of  a free  press. 
Youth  have  had  their  high  aspirations  for  knowledge 
gratified  ; thought  has  had  its  largest  expansion  ; enterprise, 
industry,  self-denial,  their  surest  reward.  We  have  had 
churches,  and  pulpits,  and  Sabbath  schools,  and  prayer 
meetings,  and  organizations  for  benevolence,  by  which  the 
religious  mind  was  awakened,  by  which  the  unbelieving  mind 
was  converted.  We  have  kept  holy  the  Sabbath  day,  thus 
casting  off,  once  in  seven  days,  the  dust  of  earthliness,  and 
pluming  our  wings  for  a spiritual  flight  through  all  the  week. 
We  have  had  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  giving  efficacy 
to  Christian  doctrine ; making  the  word  of  God  like  a ham- 
mer and  a sword  ; making  the  mercy  of  Christ  like  a healing 
balm  on  deadly  wounds  ; leading  sinners  away  from  darkness 
to  light  by  a succession  of  gentle  conversions,  or  by  a sudden 
and  powerful  revival,  causing  them  to  flock  as  doves  to  the 
windows  of  Christ’s  ark,  there  to  find  peace  from  the  terrible 
storm  which  rages  in  a rebel  world.  God  hath  done  great  things 
for  us,  whereof  we  are  glad.  In  this  course  of  events  there 
is  nothing  fortuitous.  It  is  the  far-reaching  design  of  an 
infinite  Wisdom  and  of  a beneficent  Providence.  It  is 
giving  to  us  the  privilege  of  leading  the  van  in  Christ’s 
battle  against  sin  and  unbelief.  We  may  stand  in  the  front 
of  the  future  progress.  We  may  lift  our  brow  to  Heaven, 
and  behold  the  first  unbounded  splendors  of  the  millennial 
day,  and  receive  the  first  grand  out  growings  of  the  spiritual 
shower.  All  this  is  the  result  of  faith. 


12 


It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  trace  the  lineage  of  Puritan 
faith  and  of  sturdy  American  independence.  In  England  it 
was  a mixture  of  Norman  enterprise  and  Saxon  will.  The 
Normans  were  more  adventurous  and  more  credulous ; the 
Saxons  more  home-bred  and  more  believing.  The  larger 
religious  devotion,  the  higher  sense  of  individual  responsi- 
bility, were  not  wholly  a product  of  English  thought  and 
English  faith.  Even  back  of  Luther,  John  Iluss  and  Jerome 
of  Prague  had  died  for  Christ.  Luther  himself  and  his 
coadjutors  had  brought  in  a mighty  reformation.  Poland 
and  Bohemia  had  not  been  without  profound  religious  inquiry 
and  high  religious  achievement.  The  Dutch  Republic  had 
fought  against  the  tyranny  of  Philip  II.  and  of  the 
Inquisition.  There  had  been  Lollards  of  Germany,  and 
Huguenots  of  France,  and  Waldenses  of  the  Piedmont 
Valley,  and  Covenanters  of  Scotland,  who  had  calmly  borne 
persecution,  and  unfalteringly  followed  their  Lord  through 
dangers  and  through  deaths.  It  was  left  for  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  to  give  the  highest  seal  and  attestation  of  their 
devotion,  forsaking  dearest  privileges,  encountering  sternest 
terrors,  building  a new  empire  in  the  dreary  wilderness, 
laying  its  foundations  in  feebleness  yet  in  faith,  carrying  up 
its  pillars  in  toil  and  tears  and  prayer.  We  draw  our  life 
from  men,  who  waked  learning  out  of  its  lpidnight  slumbers; 
who  asserted  the  rights  of  the  individual  conscience;  who 
struck  a blow  upon  civil  and  hierarchical  tyrannies,  which 
broke  those  terrible  links  and  emancipated  a world. 

The  spirit  of  Luther  came  into  England.  It  was  in 
John  Knox.  It  was  in  the  martyrs  of  Smithfield.  Our 
English  literature  was  early  imbued  with  it.  Milton  was 
thoroughly  pervaded  with  this  religious  leaven,  giving  depth 
and  sublimity  and  refinement  to  his  poetry.  In  civil  life 
Hampden  and  Vane  and  Pyne  and  Eliot  and  Cromwell,  and 


other  reformers,  who  brought  in  William,  and  with  him  a 
constitutional  government,  were  all  imbued  with  the  Puritan 
faith.  Our  fathers,  contemporary  with  some  of  these,  draw- 
ing their  education  and  their  blood  from  others  of  these — 
themselves  able  to  found  colleges  and  to  administer  them  ; 
to  found  states  and  to  legislate  for  them;  to  found  systems 
and  with  scientific  evidence  to  defend  them — were  permitted 
here  to  plant  our  representative  institutions,  the  model  of 
all  republics,  here  to  start  legal,  social  and  religious  reforms 
which  are  the  glory  of  the  earth. 

Let  us  not  doubt  that  God  is  carrying  on  his  own  cause 
by  his  own  methods.  Let  us  not  doubt  that  God  will  give 
compensation  for  losses  and  defeats,  will  guide  his  children 
into  courses  of  wise  and  efficient  labor,  and  will  give  the 
victory  to  truth.  God’s  ways  are  sometimes  hidden,  and  his 
paths  are  in  the  sea,  but  in  the  end  we  see  the  on-rolling  of 
his  victorious  chariot,  as  well  in  the  darkness  and  storm  as 
in  the  sunshine.  A brother  of  this  church  was  lately  nar- 
rating his  experience  in  the  Christian  Commission  during 
the  war.  At  a thronged  meeting  of  colored  people,  he  heard 
an  illiterate  negro,  in  the  energy  of  his  faith  and  the  ardor 
of  his  love,  pouring  out  his  prayer, — “0  Lord,  come  down 
and  help  us ! 0 Lord,  come  down  and  help  us ! 0 

Lord,  come  down  through  the  roof,  and  I will  pay  for  the 
shingles.”  Now,  there  was  a good  deal  of  method  in  that 
delirium,  and  a good  deal  of  sense  in  that  peculiar  imagina- 
tion. God’s  ancient  method  of  coming  among  men,  when 
the  sins  of  the  nations  were  life,  before  the  plan  of  mercy 
was  fully  unfolded,  was  often  by  breaking  the  roof- — it  was  by 
lightning  and  thunder  and  whirlwind  and  earthquake.  Thus 
He  came  to  Pharaoh  and  his  host,  to  Korah  and  his  com- 
pany, to  Sennacherib  and  his  army,  to  the  proud  city  of 
Jerusalem,  when  the  measure  of  its  iniquities  was  full.  In 
modern  years  he  comes  more  often  in  the  still,  small  voice 


14 


of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  gentle  influences  of  truth  and  love, 
in  the  faithful  counsels  of  the  father  and  the  tearful  prayers 
of  the  mother,  in  the  winning  beauty  of  a holy  life,  in  the 
sympathizing  labors  of  a godly  church,  in  the  presence  of 
Christian  institutions  and  Christian  education,  a power  that 
is  diffused  all  abroad  like  the  unseen  air.  God’s  movements 
are  usually  gentle  and  silent,  as  the  zephyr  that  moves  the 
leaves  of  spring,  not  terrible  as  the  tornado  that  sweeps  over 
and  casts  down  the  forest.  Yet,  even  now,  sometimes  God 
comes  in  judgment ; he  breaks  the  roof,  but  he  pays  for  the 
shingles.  Desolating  fires  have  swept  over  Portland  and 
over  Boston  and  over  Chicago,  but  additional  beauty  of 
architecture  and  splendor  of  furnishings  and  richness  of 
comforts  came  after  the  conflagration.  Cholera  has  prevailed 
in  St.  Louis  and  Cincinnati  and  Philadelphia,  but  there 
have  followed  more  careful  regard  to  rules  of  hygiene,  more 
obedience  to  laws  of  virtue,  more  spiritual  culture,  more 
self-control, — the  shingles  were  paid  for.  God  came  down 
through  the  roof  most  emphatically  in  the  civil  war.  The 
roof  was  broken.  Wailings  were  heard  in  every  habitation, 
but  the  shingles  have  been  paid  for.  Liberty  has  had  new 
birth.  Justice  has  been  vindicated.  Souls,  as  well  as  bodies, 
have  been  emancipated.  The  nation  has  taken  an  onward 
step  towards  the  higher  education  and  the  purer  faith. 

Can  you  doubt  that  God  has  the  superintendence  of  the 
world’s  affairs?  Can  you  doubt  that  God  reigns  in  the 
counsels  of  men,  and  in  the  uprising  and  downfall  of 
kingdoms?  What  do  you  understand  by  histories,  which 
are  now  coming  to  their  consummation,  and  to  the  clear 
unfolding  of  a divine  plan?  In  the  time  of  Luther,  there 
were  two  little  provinces  of  Germany,  the  electorates  of 
Brandenburg  and  of  Saxony.  They  were  both  feeble  in 
power.  Probably  thirty  kingdoms  and  governments  of 
Europe  surpassed  them  in  extent  of  population  and  wealth 


and  influence.  Certainly  France,  Spain  and  Austria  were 
immeasurably  superior,  and  would  have  laughed  to  scorn 
those  prophets  who  should  have  foretold  their  own  inferiority 
to  those  despised  rulers.  Yet  those  little  provinces  were 
pervaded  by  Luther’s  doctrine.  Those  two  electors,  almost 
alone  of  all  princes,  gave  their  hearts  to  Christ,  and  their 
sympathy,  their  counsels,  their  military  aid  to  Luther, 
suffering  under  the  fierceness  of  persecution.  And  now 
what  do  we  see?  In  direct  descent  from  these  two  electors 
of  Brandenburg  and  Saxony,  we  behold  two  royal  houses, 
sitting  on  the  two  most  powerful  thrones  of  the  world — 
England  and  Prussia.  What  has  the  infidel  to  say  to  this? 
Does  not  God  hold  the  kingdoms  and  the  republics  of  the 
earth  in  his  hand  ? Does  He  not  overturn  and  overturn  and 
overturn,  till  He  shall  come  whose  right  it  is  to  reign  ? If 
we  defy  His  authority  and  rush  into  unbelief,  lie  is  sure  to 
come  and  break  the  roof.  If  we  repent  and  return,  receiving 
( hrist,  aspiring  to  a purer  life  and  a larger  benevolence,  he 
will  pay  for  the  shingles.  If  we  go  forward  with  the  work 
of  missions,  with  a sincere  and  a scriptural  faith,  He  will 
give  us  success. 

3.  As  an  evidence  for  our  faith  we  may  consider  the 
strength  and  the  resources  of  the  church  adapted  to  forward 
this  great  enterprise.  Estimate  the  missionary  strength  by 
the  numbers  of  God’s  people.  There  are  more  than  three 
hundred  thousand  Congregationalist  church  members  in  the 
land.  Reckoning  the  high-minded  and  generous-hearted 
worshippers  in  our  congregations,  who  are  ready  to  aid  this 
broad  and  noble  philanthropy,  there  are  five  hundred  thou- 
sand. probably  six  hundred  thousand  helpers,  upon  whose 
counsels  and  donations  you  may  liberally  draw.  If  you 
were  to  reckon  the  Baptists,  twice  our  number ; the  Presby- 
terians, twice  our  number  ; the  Methodists,  three  times  our 
number ; the  Episcopalians,  the  Dutch  Reformed,  the  Free 


1C 


Will  Baptists,  each  of  them  equalling  our  numbers  ; you 
would  reach  an  aggregate  of  ten  or  eleven  times  the  power 
which  I have  described.  It  would  be  represented  by  six 
millions  of  individuals,  who  are  interested  in  the  cause  of 
Christ,  and  ready  to  give  for  the  salvation  of  the  heathen. 

Estimate  the  power  of  the  church  by  the  integrity  of 
its  agencies.  The  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions  has  disbursed  during  its  organization 
probably  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars ; and  those  funds, 
employed  to  purchase  a thousand  different  supplies,  trans- 
mitted to  foreign  lands,  through  various  and  changing 
instrumentalities,  subject  to  all  the  accidents  of  flood  and 
field,  to  all  the  shocks  and  panics  of  commercial  revolutions, 
under  ordinary  care,  would  have  been  largely  diminished  by 
fraud,  or  by  ignorance,  or  by  feebleness,  or  by  heedless 
trust.  Yet  every  dollar  has  been  accounted  for.  There  has 
never  been  the  charge  or  the  suspicion  of  weak  or  foolish 
appropriations.  There  has  been  no  embezzlement,  or  defal- 
cation; there  has  been  no  robbery,  or  loss;  there  has  been 
no  lack  of  business  discernment  and  broad  commercial 
knowledge.  Such  integrity  of  officers  and  employes  in 
every  land  ; such  confidence  felt  by  all  moneyed  corpora- 
tions; such  regular  and  certain  transmission  of  funds 
through  ever-changing  channels,  handling  millions,  through 
sixty  years,  without  the  loss  of  one  hundred  dollars,  is 
unprecedented.  Even  Robert  Morris  and  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton and  Jay  Cooke  and  the  Rothschilds  of  England  might 
learn  something  of  financial  sagacity  and  of  stainless  honor 
from  these  men. 

We  may  estimate  the  power  of  the  church  by  the  extent 
and  the  success  of  worldly  enterprises,  which  God,  in  II is 
providence,  makes  tributary  to  the  church.  It  is  simply 
amazing,  and  well-nigh  overwhelming,  to  mark  the  progress 
of  business  and  industry  and  wealth  in  our  land.  In  the 


IT 


tin  •ee  departments  of  commerce,  manufactures  and  agricul- 
ture, we  are  making  strides  of  advancement  which  are  the 
astonishment  of  the  world.  We  are  subjugating  new  terri- 
tories more  rapidly  than  in  the  early  colonization.  We  are 
bringing  in  all  inventions  and  all  forms  of  machinery  to  aid 
us.  Powers  of  earth  and  air,  powers  of  (ire  and  water, 
powers  of  sunlight  and  of  electricity,  powers  of  metals  and 
powers  of  ether,  more  refined  than  the  air, — all  are  working 
for  us.  Our  schemes  of  railroading,  of  telegraph  communi- 
cation, of  marine  conveyance,  are  simply  continental,  and 
you  might  say,  measured  only  by  the  circumference  of  the 
globe  and  by  the  bounds  of  the  open  sea.  Follow  the  course 
of  a multitude  of  travellers,  who  pass  over  to  Europe,  and 
who  scatter  money,  often  beyond  the  power  of  English 
noblemen  to  equal  them.  Mark  the  readiness  of  Ames  and 
Jay  Cooke  to  build  Pacific  railroads;  mark  the  skill  of 
Astor  and  Stewart  in  the  handling  of  real  estate;  mark  the 
energy  of  Vanderbilt  and  Drew  in  controlling  distant  pas- 
senger routes  ; mark  the  ambition  of  Barnum  and  the  New 
York  Herald  in  exploring  Africa  and  even  the  upper  regions 
of  the  air  ; mark  still  more  the  universal  vigor  of  action, 
energy  of  thought,  largeness  of  plan,  industrial  force,  and 
you  will  begin  to  think  that  there  is  no  vast  undertaking  to 
which  our  people  are  not  equal  And,  what  is  of  more  con- 
sequence, you  will  begin  to  think — and  the  more  profound 
your  studies,  the  more  clear  will  be  your  convictions — that 
God  is  using  all  these  stupendous  forces  of  human  intellect, 
in  the  changes  of  the  hour  and  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
centuries,  for  the  evangelizing  ol  heathen  nations  and  for 
the  salvation  of  immortal  souls.  In  view  of  this  progress  of 
material  accumulation  and  comfort,  I have  only  to  request 
you  to  consider  the  elegance  of  your  ceiled  houses,  the 
expense  of  your  halls,  your  factories,  your  warehouses, 
your  depots,  your  stores ; to  reflect  upon  your  own  ward- 

3 


18 


robe,  your  pictures,  your  furniture,  your  equipage,  your 
employment  of  all  that  is  beautiful  in  art,  and  harmonious 
in  music,  and  then  to  ask  yourselves,  how  large  a proportion 
of  my  means  may  I spend  for  personal  delight,  when  the 
heathen  are  perishing  for  the  bread  of  life? 

Estimate  the  resources  of  the  church  and  the  evidences 
for  faith  by  the  successes  which  God  has  given  to  the  cause. 
Missions  have  been  in  constant  progress  for  sixty  years. 
Judson,  Newell,  Hall,  Nott  and  Rice  were  ordained  in  Salem, 
February,  1812.  Only  five  hundred  dollars  were  then  in 
the  Treasury  of  the  American  Bcaid.  Twelve  hundred  more 
had  been  pledged  for  the  support  of  foreign  laborers.  Eight 
thousand  were  absolutely  demanded  to  fit  out  those  five 
missionaries  and  cairy  them  to  their  field.  It  was  raised, 
but  with  a severe  struggle,  and  with  remarkable  examples 
of  liberality  from  Newburyport,  Bradford,  Andover,  Salem 
and  Beverly,  where  the  missionaries  were  more  particularly 
known.  How  instructive  the  progress!  In  1872,  five  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty-five 
dollars  were  given  to  the  American  Board — given  by  the 
multiplied  donations  of  the  poor,  as  well  as  by  the  generous 
offerings  of  the  i ich  ; given,  not  so  much  out  of  sympathy 
with  persons,  as  cut  of  a high  philanthropy,  a loyalty  to 
truth,  a consecration  to  Christ,  a passion  for  souls.  Once  or 
twice  there  have  I eon  revulsions  and  commercial  shocks, 
which  have  demanded  retrenchment  in  missionary  expendi- 
tures. In  1837  five  thousand  dollars  were  withheld  fu  m the 
Ceylon  Mission.  Five  thousand  children  were  turned  out  of 
schools  into  the  darkness  and  the  horrors  of  heathenism. 
The  leading  seminary  for  the  instruction  of  youth  lost  its 
president.  Only  one  of  the  old  missionaries,  Levi  Spaulding, 
the  lion-hearted  and  scholarly  veteran  (just  now  deceased), 
was  at  that  time  left;  and  for  a while  the  entire  Ceylon 
Mission,  with  its  presses,  and  schools,  and  revivals;  its 


10 


growing  churches  and  native  preachers  ; its  christianized 
public  sentiment ; its  anxious  minds  awakened  out  of  sen- 
sualism and  turned  with  eager  inrpiiry  towards  the  cross  of 
Christ;  all  seemed  going  to  wreck.  It  was  a sight,  to  the 
Prudential  Committee  and  the  Board,  to  all  missionaries  and 
all  Christians,  most  appalling.  It  was  an  experiment,  not 
likely  to  be  repeated,  unless  the  church  were  willing  to 
acknowledge  defeat ; to  retire  before  the  victorious  onset  of 
Satan  ; to  withdraw  from  all  philanthropies  and  to  give  up 
the  salvation  of  the  world  as  a lost  cause.  The  missionary 
work  is  necessarily  aggressive  and  progressive.  A higher 
style  of  piety  in  the  Christian  world  makes  it  progressive. 
Revivals  and  prayers  and  sermons  and  individual  fidelity 
make  it  progressive.  Ten  thousand  dollars  sufficed  when 
Hall  and  N ewell  and  Judson  went  forth.  Six  hundred 
thousand  dollars  are  asked  for  to-day,  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars  are  more  easily  raised  than  ten  thousand  dollars  then. 
It  is  the  liberality  of  the  heart  and  the  fervency  of  faith 
that  measure  the  ability.  It  is  not  possible,  when  the 
American  Board  have  made  one  of  these  great  conquests, 
to  give  it  up.  Retrenchment,  in  their  great  operations,  can 
only  be  attained  by  forsaking  countries,  by  breaking  up 
entire  missions,  by  abandoning  whole  nations  and  millions 
of  souls  to  the  devices  and  the  plots  of  Satan.  Would 
you  estimate  that  disaster?  Think  of  Judson,  Boardman, 
Abbott,  forsaking  Burmah.  Think  of  Morrison,  Milne, 
Abeel,  Bridgman,  yielding  China  to  the  adversary.  Think 
of  the  Sandwich  Islands  or  the  Micronesian  Islands,  going 
back  to  the  pollution  and  the  darkness  of  their  former 
history.  Whenever  such  retrenchment  has  seemed  to  be 
necessary,  the  churches  at  home  have  rallied ; the  spirit  of 
tender  benevolence  has  been  kindled  and  strengthened ; 
various  expenditures,  not  absolutely  indispensable,  have 
been  cut  off, and  sacrifices  have  been  endured  by  the  people 


20 


of  God ; prayer  has  been  otfered ; toil  has  been  renewed  ; 
the  spirit  of  God  has  been  poured  out  upon  the  congrega- 
tions ; business  has  revived  ; generous  and  godly  affections 
have  filled  the  heart  ; and  means  have  been  supplied  to  set 
in  motion  again  the  wheels  of  God’s  conquering  chariot. 

The  present  condition  of  the  missions  of  the  Board  is 
truly  commanding.  More  than  one  thousand  two  hundred 
laborers  are  in  the  field,  reckoning  missionaries  and  their 
wives,  physicians,  printers,  seminary  professors,  female 
helpers,  lay  teachers,  native  preachers,  colporteurs.  More 
than  fifty  presses  are  running,  in  fifty  different  languages, 
throwing  oft'  their  six  millions  of  pages  yearly,  which,  like 
birds  of  golden  plumage  and  of  celestial  song,  are  flying 
forth  on  all  the  winds  of  Heaven.  There  are  fifteen  semi- 
naries of  higher  instruction;  twenty  boarding  schools;  five 
hundred  free  schools  ; and  nineteen  thousand  children  taught 
in  them  yearly.  Nine  missionaries  during  the  last  year  have 
died,  among  them  Rev.  Dr.  Spaulding  of  Ceylon,  the  noble, 
persistent,  undaunted  pioneer ; a laborer  of  fifty-four  years 
in  that  terrible  climate  and  under  that  most  exhausting 
responsibility  ; the  wit,  whose  native  humor  and  pleasantries 
in  college  overflowed  with  spontaneous  gushes;  the  scholar, 
whose  power  of  philosophic  thought  and  classic  attainment, 
was  hardly  surpassed  by  any  graduate  of  Dartmouth  ; the 
Christian,  whose  eminent  consecration  has  been  illustrated 
by  labors  and  sufferings  and  prayers,  every  year,  I might  sav 
every  day,  down  to  his  deep,  old  age.  Ten  missionaries  have 
returned  home  for  a season,  disabled  by  ill  health.  Forty- 
seven  missionary  workers  have  gone  forth  to  those  descit 
fields,  there  to  enlist  for  Christ  against  His  terrible  foes. 
A new  mission  has  been  established  in  Western  Mexico,  or 
rather  transferred  from  the  Foreign  Christian  Union ; and 
there,  under  the  able  guidance  of  Miss  Rankin,  thirteen 
laborers  are  at  work.  The  Austrian  Mission  has  had  its 


21 


force  augmented  by  liev.  Mr.  Bissell,  taken  from  the 
pastorate  at  Winchester,  and  by  other  scholars  of  skilled 
and  disciplined  power.  Five  more  ministers  of  high  quali- 
fications are  now  urgently  need  in  Austria;  two  more  in 
Spain;  two  more  in  Mexico;  one  in  Italy;  the  fields  are 
wide  and  white  to  the  harvest ; the  doors  are  open,  and  the 
call  of  invitation  is  loud.  In  Central  and  Western  Turkey 
signs  are  discouraging  and  the  inissionaiy  force  is  reduced. 
The  churches  there  have  had  great  prosperity,  but  they  need 
sifting.  Six  men  of  practical  experience  and  thorough 
culture,  to  superintend  each  of  them  the  work  of  forty 
evangelists,  and  to  give  theological  instruction  in  as  many 
seminaries,  are  imperatively  called  for  there.  The  cause  is 
going  forward  in  China  and  Japan,  and  in  Japan  especially, 
important  events  and  startling  changes  are  making  rapid 
progress.  In  Southern  India,  God  is  doing  a mighty  work. 
At  a conference  of  all  missionary  societies  and  denomina- 
tions, at  Allahabad,  in  December,  1872.  it  was  found  that 
in  ten  years  the  increase  of  native  Christians  had  been 
eightv-five  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty  — sixty-one 
per  cent,  of  all  conversions  from  the  beginning ; the  increase 
of  native,  ordained  ministers,  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine; 
the  increase  of  church  members,  twenty-seven  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  ; and  missionary  contributions  in 
those  churches  had  been  augmented  more  than  tenfold. 
The  Micronesian  Missions  are  going  forward  under  God’s 
smiles.  The  native  Christians  of  Ponepe  are  most  earnest 
in  self-denial,  and  in  carrying  the  news  of  salvation  to  other 
islands.  Seventy  inquirers  were  awakened  by  the  week  ot 
prayer,  most  of  them  finding  Christ.  No  field  offers  greater 
apparent  returns  in  souls  won  and  truths  diffused.  Number 
of  converts  reported  by  the  Board  during  the  year,  eight 
hundred.  Number  of  young  men  in  training  for  the 


22 


ministry,  three  hundred  and  sixty.  Number  of  young 
women  brought  under  the  highest  culture  in  boarding 
schools,  six  hundred.  Number  of  church  members  under 
the  care  of  the  Board,  nine  thousand  four  hundred  and 
thirty-five.  Number  of  missionary  laborers  sustained  by 
the  Board,  one  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty-six. 

New  Dr.  Treat,  Secretary  of  the  Board,  asks  for  twenty- 
seven  new,  ordained  missionaries  to  relieve  those  who  are 
totteiing  and  fainting  under  their  burden,  and  to  keep  the 
missions  even  in  their  present  working  order;  and  in  this 
call  he  does  not  ask  for  one  for  China,  where  the  field  is 
immense ; nor  one  for  Japan,  whose  claims  are  extraordinary  ; 
nor  one  for  European  Turkey,  in  t lie  full  tide  of  success; 
nor  one  for  the  Dakotas,  where  the  gospel  is  the  only 
absolute  shield  that  can  be  interposed  over  the  head  of 
helpless  settlers,  to  protect  them  from  Indian  vindictive- 
ness. The  men  to  occupy  these  mission  stations  are  not  to 
be  found ; our  colleges  and  theological  seminaiies  need  to 
be  baptized  with  the  lloly  Ghost.  The  Prudential  Com- 
mittee ask  for  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  coming 
year.  The  last  financial  year  ended  with  a balance  unex- 
pended of  sixteen  thousand  dollars.  This  year  ends  with  a 
balance  of  debt  of  twenty-six  thousand  dollars,  making  a 
loss  of  forty-two  thousand  two  hundred  and  eighty-nine 
dollars.  Are  the  churches  and  congregations  of  our  land, 
living  in  the  midst  of  privileges  for  which  prophets  and 
apostles  would  have  lifted  up  loud  songs  of  praise,  prepared 
to  hear  the  Macedonian  cry?  Will  they  rededicate  them- 
selves? Will  they  consecrate  their  children?  Will  they 
write  Holiness  on  the  bells  of  their  horses,  and  on  the  doors 
of  their  offices  and  shops?  Will  they  renew  their  wrestling 
cries  to  God,  and  in  the  communion  of  saints,  invite  and 
stimulate  other  souls  to  pray,  until  the  Holy  Ghost,  with 


subduing  power,  shall  descend  upon  missionary  stations  and 
upon  heathen  tribes  ? Such  will  be  the  result  it*  the  churches 
exercise  apostolic  faith. 

II.  I NOTICE  SOME  REASONS  FOR  AN  ENLARGEMENT  OF  WORK  IN 
THE  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  CAUSE. 

1.  The  field  is  wide.  It  is  the  world,  with  its  empires 
mighty  in  power;  with  its  sciences,  proud  in  their  triumph  ; 
with  its  boundless  enterprise,  invention,  labor,  art.  The 
world  was  made  by  God,  it  has  been  redeemed  by  Christ ; 
its  marvellous  energies  of  progress  and  accomplishment  have 
been  guided  by  I i is  hand;  it  shall  yet  be  redeemed  by  1 1 is 
grace.  We  form  very  inadequate  views  of  the  extent  of 
this  field.  We  go  up  to  the  top  of  Wachusett,  or  of  the 
White  Mountains,  or  of  the  Alps,  and  think  we  have  seen 
a large  section  of  the  world.  We  have  seen  only  a point. 
Our  eye-sight  is  too  narrow,  our  telescopes  are  too  short,  we 
cannot  measure  this  world.  We  read  the  history  of  one 
little  island  like  Great  Britain  ; we  grope  into  the  antiquities 
of  a single  nation  like  the  Chinese ; we  attempt  to  master 
one  department  of  knowledge  like  the  mathematics;  we 
find  business  cut  out  for  us  for  a life-time.  And  yet  the 
whole  world  is  God’s  providence  and  Christ’s  inheritance. 
The  whole  world  is  the  field  for  the  plans  and  the  expecta- 
tions of  the  church,  and  for  the  victories  of  the  gospel. 

The  gospel  is  fitted  to  win  those  victoiies.  There  is  no 
other  religion  of  the  world  which  is  adapted  to  the  masses 
of  men,  in  all  places  of  residence,  and  under  all  circum- 
stances and  conditions  of  life.  Mohammedanism  lives  by 
the  sword,  and  perishes  in  the  midst  of  peaceful  industry 
and  intellectual  pursuits.  Hindooism  nourishes  only  under 
a sultry,  tropical  sun,  and  in  the  vast,  marshy  grounds, 
breathing  miasmas  and  breeding  pestilence,  which  charac- 


24 


terize  such  rivers  as  the  Ganges.  The  religion  of  the 
nomadic  Arab,  of  the  unhoused  Indian,  of  the  degraded 
African,  of  the  semi-civilized  Asiatic,  grows  out  of  their 
surroundings  of  scenery,  custom,  life,  and  can  have  no  roots 
transplanted  elsewhere.  The  superstitions  of  the  pagan, 
the  erring  philosophies  of  the  modern  times,  find  no  support 
in  the  universal  human  heart,  or  the  general  human  experi- 
ence. All  is  incongruous,  outre,  unintelligible,  false,  when 
you  come  to  appeal  to  the  common  sense  of  mankind.  The 
Gospel  alone  has  the  elements  of  perpetuity  and  universality. 
It  lives  on  from  age  to  age.  It  extends  outward  and  onward, 
from  family  to  family,  and  people  to  people.  Everywhere 
it  carries  light,  salvation,  joy.  Everywhere  it  awakens  the 
slumbering  faculties  and  benumbed  sensibilities  of  men, 
feeds  them  with  knowledge  and  with  strength,  starts  them 
on  the  career  of  improvement,  cleanses  them  from  sin,  pre- 
pares them  for  God’s  service.  Everywhere  the  gospel  proves 
its  correspondence  with  human  wants,  and  its  fitness  to 
supply  them,  an  adaptation  as  clear  and  decisive,  as  that  of 
light  to  the  eye,  or  air  to  t lie  lungs,  or  food  to  the  healthy 
body.  God  has  ordained  that  the  Gospel  shall  conquer  its 
foes,  and  its  field  is  the  world. 

2.  We  should  seek  the  enlargement  of  missions  because 
of  the  dee])  degradation  of  the  heathen.  Prof.  Seelye,  who 
has  recently  visited  heathen  lands,  says  that  “ nothing  but 
the  sight  of  the  eyes  and  the  hearing  of  the  ears  can  give 
any  idea  of  it.”  Dishonesty  and  treachery  aie  woven 
through  the  whole  heathen  life,  commercial,  social,  political, 
and  if  you  wish  to  characterize,  in  the  shortest  terms,  hea- 
then business  relations  and  heathen  morals,  impurity  and 
untruthfulness  are  the  words  that  must  be  used.  The 
courtesies  and  amenities  of  Christian  life  are  unknown. 
There  are  no  social  gatherings,  no  neighborhood  meetings, 
no  family  parties.  No  system  of  truth  is  studied  or  com- 


mended,  no  practice  of  life  is  cherished  which  implies  the 
exercise  of  generous,  self-forgetful  fidelity.  The  condition 
of  the  family  and  the  relation  of  the  sexes  are  absolutely 
appalling,  and  the  neglect  of  feeble  offspring,  of  the  aged 
and  the  sick,  is  more  than  brutal ; it  indicates  a fiendish 
heartlessness,  and  the  lack  of  all  love  and  all  honor.  The 
description  of  Paul,  in  the  first  chapter  of  Romans,  is  still 
applicable  to  the  heathen  without  abatement  of  one  jot  or 
tittle  of  its  emphasis.  This  only  corresponds  with  all  other 
descriptions  of  travellers  and  of  missionaries. 

This  degradation  of  heathen  character  should  touch  the 
deep  pity  of  our  hearts.  It  should  open  all  the  resources  of 
our  activity  and  benevolence.  It.  should  enlist  the  impor- 
tunity of  our  earnest  and  persevering  prayers.  It  should 
deepen  our  conviction  of  the  truth  of  Gospel  doctrine,  for 
surely  the  evil  bias  of  the  heart,  and  the  natural  alienation 
of  the  soul  from  God  are  here  undeniable,  and  nothing  but 
divine  power,  working  through  the  cross  of  Christ  and  the 
regeneration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  can  transform  that  mass  of 
heathenism  into  the  beauty  of  the  Christian  life,  can  check 
those  rushing  tides  of  false  opinion,  which  bear  them  down, 
to  a deeper  sensuality  and  a darker  woe.  I have  sometimes 
thought,  when  gazing  upon  these  fearful  pictures  of  heathen- 
ism, that  it  would  be  a relief  to  believe  in  Darwinism.  For 
if  man  is  descended  from  stardust,  or  jelly  fish,  or  the  various 
tribes  of  apes,  there  was  a place,  in  the  working  out  of  this 
law  of  evolution,  where  man  had  no  soul,  and  no  accounta- 
bility to  a moral  law.  His  sensuality  was  simply  bestiality, 
and  was  not  a crime.  II is  cruelty  was  the  instinctive 
ferocity  of  the  hyena  or  the  tiger,  he  satisfied  his  hunger 
for  food,  he  slacked  his  thirst  for  blood,  and  then  he  passed 
away  into  annihilation  and  everlasting  forgetfulness.  Mul- 
titudes of  the  heathen,  judging  by  superficial  signs,  might 


4 


26 


seem  to  be  labelled  all  over  the  soul,  and  all  over  the 
physical  frame,  and  all  over  the  life,  beast , beast,  beast. 

But  no,  they  are,  like  us,  children  of  Adam  and  Eve, 
born  of  one  blood,  destined  to  one  eternity,  saved  by  one 
Redeemer.  On  their  degenerate  souls  are  written  the 
words,  “ Conscience,”  “ Immortality,”  “ Retribution,” 
“ The  Immutable  Right,”  “ Duty  to  God,”  “ Fear  of  Sin,” 
“ Need  of  Salvation” — these  are  instinctive  convictions 
of  their  intelligent  nature.  They  are  to  be  saved,  not  by 
Darwinism,  but  by  Christian  doctrine ; not  by  thrusting 
them  down,  with  dogs  and  cats  and  baboons,  into  animalism 
and  oblivion,  but  by  lifting  them  up  with  Gabriel  and 
Michael  and  Uriel,  into  a glory  surpassing  the  meridian  sun, 
even  into  the  light  of  God.  They  are  to  be  delivered  from 
woe,  not  by  giving  their  passions  full  swing  till  gross  vices 
destroy  them,  but  by  removing  the  passion  and  the  crime  ; 
by  exalting  their  soul,  through  the  redemption  of  Christ, 
into  the  likeness  of  God ; by  purging  away  the  dross,  and 
the  tin,  and  the  clay,  and  the  iron,  until  the  refined  gold,  of 
a perfect  intellectual  beauty  and  a perfect  moral  glory,  shall 
shine  in  them,  as  it  shines  in  Payson  or  Evarts,  in  Chalmers, 
or  Wilberforce,  or  Washington.  Dr.  Seelye  declared,  with 
great  eloquence  and  impressiveness  of  argument,  that 
“ commerce  had  no  power  to  redeem  these  fallen  nations ; 
that  railroads  had  no  such  power;  that  the  introduction  of 
civilized  arts  and  industries  had  no  such  power;  that  the 
in-rushing  tide  of  emigration  and  travel,  led  by  ambition, 
by  adventure,  and  by  the  lust  of  gain,  had  no  such 
power;  that  the  knowledge  of  the  secular  sciences  and 
the  education  of  the  secular  schools  had  no  such  power ; 
and  that  if  heathen  society  is  ever  to  be  reformed,  it 
will  be  renovated  by  the  power  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.” 


3.  We  should  seek  the  enlargement  of  missions  because 
of  the  eminent  qualifications  and  eminent  successes  attained 
by  our  own  foreign  missionaries.  The  missionary  needs  the 
calmest  and  the  most  sovereign  self-control.  His  integrity 
must  be  unimpeachable,  and  his  will  firm  as  adamant,  for  no 
person  moving  in  t lie  pure,  refined  circles  of  Christian  lands 
can  imagine  his  temptations.  The  very  air  is  the  air  of 
pollution.  All  grossness  that  appeals  to  sense,  all  provoca- 
tions that  enkindle  passion,  all  delusions  that  darken  the 
mind  and  corrupt  the  imagination,  are  around  him.  He  is 
poisoned  and  contaminated  by  deadly  influences,  unless 
mind  and  heart  are  purified  by  the  inward  renewal,  unless 
soul  and  life  are  shielded  by  the  power  of  a Christ-like  love. 
He  must  attain  to  sovereign  self-control,  for  the  tendencies 
around  him  are  perpetually  towards  feebleness,  and  sloth- 
fulness, and  sensuality,  and  stupidity.  He  must  be  manly 
and  true,  where  he  sees  only  effeminacy  and  treachery.  He 
must  be  thoughtful,  far-seeing  and  bold,  where  all  is 
impulsive,  short-sighted  and  pusillanimous,  lie  must  rise 
above  forms  to  the  loving  communion  of  the  soul  with  God, 
where  posturings,  and  ceremonies,  and  brazen  assertions, 
and  outside  shows  are  the  whole  of  religion.  He  must 
labor  with  ceaseless  and  tireless  diligence,  where  nature  by 
spontaneous  products  supplies  his  wants,  and  where  the  inert 
and  lazy  propensities  of  human  nature  for  long  centuries 
have  had  full  play.  He  must  live  for  eternity,  keeping  that 
high  standard  ever  before  him,  where  political  and  social 
maxims,  and  public  law,  and  popular  opinions  make  the 
pleasures  of  the  hour,  and  the  rules  of  a time-serving  policy 
the  only  guide.  Judge  ye,  what  the  decision  of  mind  and 
the  elevation  of  aim  must  be,  to  keep  the  character  high  up 
in  a spiritual  atmosphere,  at  the  very  gates  of  heaven, 
through  thirty,  forty,  fifty  years  of  such  associations. 


28 


These  missionaries  need,  not  only  the  purity  and  the 
spirituality  of  the  saint,  but  high  talent,  large  scholarship, 
the  quickest  observation,  the  soundest  judgment,  unerring 
common  sense.  They  are  watched  by  eager  and  hostile 
eyes,  and  the  first  false  step  will  throw  them  out  of  the 
confidence  of  a nation.  They  are  moulding  literatures  and 
sciences  and  governments.  They  are  translating  the  Bible 
into  more  than  a hundred  new  tongues.  They  are  giving  to 
nations,  long  silent  and  dumb,  the  power  of  a new  language. 
If  Cadmus,  who  gave  letters  to  Greece  ; if  Guttenberg,  who 
gave  the  art  of  printing  to  Germany ; if  Guess,  the  Cherokee, 
who  invented  an  alphabet  for  that  tribe,  have  been  eulogized, 
and  almost  canonized  for  their  discoveries ; what  shall  be 
said  of  missionaries  who  are  repeating  this  miracle,  in  many 
languages,  for  many  nations,  for  all  the  future  centuries,  by 
the  invention  of  alphabets,  grammars,  dictionaries,  spelling 
books,  reading  books,  translations,  incipient  literatures, 
which  are  to  put  millions  of  minds  on  the  course  of  intel- 
lectual discipline ; which  are  to  open  our  reservoirs  of 
thought,  our  treasures  of  genius,  our  deep  mines  of  history, 
to  the  blind  heathen ; most  of  all  which  are  to  give  the 
infinite  riches  of  Christ's  salvation  to  those  untaught  souls? 

Of  course  those  missionaries  need  to  be,  and  most  of 
them  are,  quick,  and  keen,  and  deep,  aiul  wide  in  intellect. 
It  is  not  a feeble  soul  nor  an  ignorant  soul  that  can  make  a 
good  grammar,  or  dictionary,  or  shape  a language  into  Hums 
of  beauty,  or  give  to  the  Bible  its  native  energy,  pathos  and 
spiritual  light,  when  translated  into  another  tongtie.  It  is 
not  a feeble  or  sluggish  soul  that  can  meet  the  Muftis  of 
Turkey,  or  the  Moollahs  of  Persia,  or  the  Mandarins  of 
China,  or  the  Brahmins  of  India,  or  the  chief  priests  of  the 
Jews,  and  answer  their  subtleties  out  of  the  law,  and  out  of 
the  history,  and  out  of  the  deep  soul.  These  missionaries 


20 


must  understand  government  and  jurisprudence,  society  and 
administration,  for  they  are  in  the  midst  of  revolutions,  and 
by  their  testimony  and  counsels  they  are  laying  the  forming 
hand  upon  institutions.  They  need  to  have  a soul  above 
fear,  as  well  as  an  intellect  above  sophistry,  and  a life  above 
reproach.  Their  feet  are  on  the  edge  of  the  grave.  They 
walk  amid  pestilences  and  persecutions  and  deaths.  Many 
of  them  die,  through  labor,  exposure  and  anxiety,  in  their 
youth.  They  take  their  life  in  their  hands;  they  leave 
home,  comforts  and  friends;  they  meet  appalling  perils  and 
ditliculties  ; they  expect  to  die  prematurely.  Their  courage, 
their  faith,  their  consecration  are  of  the  apostolic  type,  not 
begotten  of  the  speculations  of  a latitudinarian  and  utili- 
tarian age,  but  begotten  of  deep  humility  before  the  cross, 
of  much  study  of  the  Bible,  of  a singular  experience  of 
Christ’s  love,  and  a singular  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Such  have  been  our  missionaries.  1 have  looked  over  the 
circle  of  my  personal  knowledge  to  see  who  were  mission- 
aries, and  1 find  that  they  were  the  most  scholarly,  and  the 
most  gentlemanly,  and  the  most  saintly.  I look  back  to  mv 
own  college  class,  and  asking  for  the  most  beautiful  face,  for 
the  most  fascinating  manners,  for  the  most  quick  and  retentive 
memory,  for  the  most  broad  and  valuable  information,  for  the 
most  heavenly  spirit,  no  member  of  the  class,  in  these  varied 
gifts,  would  rank  above  one,  who  went  to  Western  Africa,  and 
there  in  the  Gaboon  Mission,  within  three  years,  laid  down 
his  precious  life  a sacrifice  to  the  Great  Cause.  His  name 
was  Benjamin  Griswold.  I would  like  to  describe  Henry 
Martyn  and  Reginald  Heber,  cut  off  in  their  first  years  of 
labor  in  India,  resigning  the  most  brilliant  opportunities  of 
literary  fame,  of  ecclesiastical  preferment,  of  refined  and 
gifted  society,  of  English  culture  and  English  privilege  and 
English  hope,  a standard  the  highest  of  the  world,  that  they 
might  toil  for  a little  time,  in  weariness  and  painfulness,  and 


30 


then  die.  I would  like  to  describe  John  Elliot,  David 
Brainerd,  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  were  missionaries  among 
the  Indians,  the  first  as  brave  a soul  and  as  self-sacrificing 
as  any  that  came  over  in  the  Mayflower,  or  that  had  a part 
in  colonizing  the  rugged  wilderness  ; the  second  marked  for 
a spirituality  of  mind,  and  a love  to  souls,  not  exceeded 
since  the  days  of  Paul  and  John;  the  third  as  pure  a life, 
as  acute,  athletic  and  searching  an  intellect  as  America  has 
ever  produced.  I would  like  to  draw  the  picture  of  Ann 
Ilaseltine,  Sarah  Boardman  and  Emily  Chubbuck,  the  three 
wives  of  Adonirain  Judson,  the  first  unsurpassed  for  an 
executive,  working  talent ; the  second  for  the  tenderness  of 
her  domestic  love  and  her  Christian  sympathy  ; the  third  for 
the  finish  of  her  literary  culture  and  the  breadth  of  her  poetic 
genius.  Our  literature  has  been  enriched  by  the  lives,  and 
heaven  has  been  enriched  by  the  labors,  of  such  missionaries 
as  Harriet  Newell,  Fidelia  Fiske,  Sarah  Lanman  Smith,  Mary 
Hawes  Van  Lewcep,  Henrietta  Hamlin. 

I cannot  here  refrain  from  the  opinion  that  female  mis- 
sionaries of  the  last  sixty  years  have  set  us  an  example  of 
consecration,  and  of  fortitude,  and  of  usefulness,  which  are 
among  the  distinguishing  features  of  the  age.  I hardly 
know  of  any  form  of  self-sacrificing  heroism,  like  that  of 
Christian  ladies  of  culture  and  refinement,  of  winning  man- 
ners, and  high  accomplishments,  and  eminent  gifts,  who  go 
forth  to  live  and  die  among  the  heathen.  Here  at  home,  they 
have  been  taught  in  the  High  School  or  the  Woman’s  College. 
Here  the}^  can  hold  intelligent  conversation  with  statesmen 
and  lawgivers,  with  professors  of  science  and  learned  authors, 
wielding  themselves  the  . pen  of  the  ready  writer,  speaking 
themselves  in  the  parlor,  in  the  school,  in  the  prayer  meeting, 
in  the  lecture  room,  with  an  eloquence  impressive  and  rare. 
It  is  theirs  to  adorn  the  highest  walks  of  society.  It  is  theirs 
to  teach  the  children  of  the  most  cultured,  accomplished, 


31 


gifted  families.  It  is  theirs  to  enjoy  all  line  arts,  and  all 
useful  arts,  and  intellectual  and  religious  privileges,  and  to 
be  looked  up  to,  by  young  and  old,  with  delicate,  deferential, 
I had  almost  said  reverential  regard.  They  go  to  heathen 
lands,  as  missionaries,  and  there  is  an  instant,  amazing,  ter- 
rible contrast.  There  woman  is  degraded  and  despised. 
There  they  are  in  daily  association  with  the  vile  and  the 
repulsive.  There  eye  and  ear  and  every  sense  are  offended. 
Virtue,  religion,  conjugal  love,  filial  reverence,  social  honor, 
business  integrity,  every  principle  of  nobleness  is  wounded. 
There  they  teach  feeble,  squalid,  stupid,  faithless  children,  as 
far  from  the  beautiful  development  of  the  children  of 
Christian  families,  as  the  midnight  is  from  the  golden 
morning.  The  tlospel  will  ultimately  refine  those  savages, 
but  long  and  painful  will  be  the  process  before  the  result  is 
reached.  There  woman  has  no  literature  but  her  Bible  ; no 
friends  but  the  members  of  one  or  two  missionary  families  ; 
no  bright  and  beautiful  circle,  brilliant  with  all  the 
accessories  of  art,  to  shine  in  ; no  renown  from  her  own 
eloquent  tongue  or  eloquent  pen ; no  stimulant  to  urge  her 
on  but  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  love  cf  souls;  no  reward 
but  the  consciousness  of  duty  fulfilled,  and  the  distant, 
anticipatory  music  of  the  heavenly  harp.  The  romance  is 
all  taken  out  of  her  life.  For  her  no  brilliant  display  in 
public  ; no  association  with  the  illustrious ; no  novelty  of 
discovery ; no  magic  enjoyment  of  unaccustomed  scenes  ; 
no  meed  of  literature;  no  echo  of  fame.  Iler  principles 
must  be  very  high,  her  love  of  souls  very  deep,  her  faith 
heaven-inspired,  her  courage  true  as  steel,  to  keep  her  from 
despondency,  and  fear,  and  home-sickness.  I have  read  ot 
Caroline  Fry  in  the  prisons  of  England ; of  Florence 
Nightingale  in  the  Crimean  hospitals;  of  Mother  Bicker- 
dyke  at  the  West,  caring  for  her  wounded  and  fever-stricken 
soldier-boys : of  Clara  Barton  among  the  suffering  of  the 


32 


Potomac  army ; but  I can  see  no  sacrifice  nor  pain  in  this 
like  the  total  self-abnegation  of  the  female  missionary.  If 
there  are  young  women  like  Harriet  Newell  or  an  Ann 
Ilaseltine  Judson,  now  going  forth  to  heathen  lands,  I bid 
them  God  speed ; I offer  for  them  my  earnest  prayer ; I 
follow  them  with  my  wondering  admiration.  I bless  God 
that  the  race  of  heroines,  and  of  martyrs,  and  of  holy 
pioneers  to  stand  in  danger’s  front,  and  in  death’s  pathway, 
is  not  ended. 

Let  the  missionary  in  heathen  lands,  and  let  the  church 
sustaining  missionary  enterprise,  steady  their  mind  on  the 
example  of  Christ,  and  on  the  doctrine  of  atonement.  The 
purchase  of  your  life  was  by  the  sacrifice  of  a nobler  life 
than  yours.  By  sacrifice  and  suffering  and  toil  show  that 
you  appreciate  what  Christ  has  done  for  you,  and  that  you 
are  willing  to  drink  some  little  part  of  the  cup  of  which 
He  drank  so  deeply.  The  attraction,  which  draws  the 
missionary,  is  not  that  he  goes  forth  to  lands  of  antiquity  ; 
lands,  made  sacred  by  the  footsteps  and  by  the  deeds  of  our 
Lord ; lands,  where  intellect  and  genius  brightly  shone 
thousands  of  years  ago  ; lands,  renowned  for  literature  and 
for  art ; lands,  where  the  great  battles  of  the  world  have 
been  fought  and  the  great  events  of  history  have  transpired  ; 
lands,  which  are  explored  by  travellers  and  by  scholars,  that 
they  may  familiarize  themselves  with  the  customs  of  the 
olden  times,  and  that  they  may  bring  to  light  the  deep 
marvels  of  nature  and  of  life.  The  sympathy  which  is 
demanded  is  for  lost  souls;  not  for  the  eloquence  of  Greece; 
not  for  the  Italian  art;  not  for  the  military  glory  of  the  old 
Roman  empire ; not  for  the  memorials  of  dead  kingdoms  ; 
not  for  the  relics  of  greatness  in  Egypt,  or  Assyria,  or 
Palestine;  not  for  the  mountain-grandeur  or  the  tropical 
luxuriance  of  India  or  Asia  or  the  isles  of  the  sea.  It  is  a 
sympathy  which  springs  from  religious  love  and  religious 


principle.  It  is  not  a diseased  sensibility,  that  weeps  and 
sighs  at  the  sight  of  pain,  and  thus  exhausts  itself,  saying 
to  the  hungry,  lie  ye  fed,  and  to  the  naked,  lie  ye  clothed, 
and  to  the  perishing,  He  ye  saved,  while  it  makes  no  sacrifices 
and  engages  in  no  labors  for  the  lost.  It  is  a tender  love  to 
man,  sorrowing  with  those  who  are  in  distress,  rejoicing  with 
those  who  rejoice,  willing  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  the 
rescue  of  the  indigent,  the  miserable  and  the  fallen.  It  is 
a profound  reverence  for  truth,  and  a deep  conviction  that 
nothing  can  save  men  from  sin  and  from  death,  but  the 
doctrines  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a 
consecration  of  the  soul  to  Christ,  who  has  died  for  us,  and 
a feeble  expression  of  that  gratitude  which  we  would  render 
back  to  Him.  It  is  a love  which  does  not  confer  with  flesh 
and  blood ; with  the  rules  of  expediency,  and  the  calcula- 
tions of  profit,  and  the  ambitions  of  a worldly  mind.  It 
gives  time,  and  strength,  and  property,  and  affection,  and 
prayer,  and  all,  to  Christ.  It  has  led  to  the  endurance  of 
the  martyr.  It  has  been  found  a prolific  fountain  of  the 
nobler  virtues,  manliness,  bravery,  self-denial,  promptitude, 
perseverance.  It  is  a fealty  to  Christ  that  endures  unto  the 
death. 

4.  We  are  to  seek  for  the  enlargement  of  the  missionary 
work,  because  of  the  help  rendered  by  missions  to  the 
advancement  of  intellect  and  the  discoveries  of  science. 
The  Gospel  is  everywhere  the  herald  and  the  forerunner  of 
intellectual  progress.  We  set  a high  value  on  travels  and 
voyages.  They  are  the  never-tiring  romance  of  the  young 
mind.  They  are  a never-exhausted  recreation  and  reservoir 
of  facts  for  the  mature  mind.  Bayard  Taylor,  Richard  H. 
Dana,  Jr.,  Coffin.  Kane,  Lewis  and  Clark,  Stephens,  Stanley, 
Seward,  Hillard,  Bartol,  Emerson,  Prime,  not  to  mention 
other  names,  have  written  narratives  of  their  journeyings, 
which  will  give  to  them  a permanent  place  in  our  history, 


34 


and  which  go  far  to  constitute  one  of  the  most  attractive 
departments  of  our  literature.  Now,  the  missionary,  by  the 
necessity  of  the  case,  lias  a more  exact  arid  thorough  inform- 
ation of  these  places  than  any  traveller  or  explorer.  He 
spends  a life-time,  where  they  spend  a few  weeks  or  months. 
He  describes  from  personal  observation,  where  they  describe 
from  hearsay,  or  from  guide-books,  or  from  the  extravagant 
statements  of  mercenary  witnesses.  He  has  access  to 
families,  and  long  acquaintance  with  individuals;  he  looks 
deeply  into  the  condition  of  society,  and  the  rules  of 
government,  and  the  motives  of  men,  where  most  travellers 
must  judge  and  write  from  rapid,  uncertain,  superficial 
testimony.  It  is  not  his  business  to  write  travels,  and  a 
vast  amount  of  information,  communicated  by  him,  is  in 
letters,  commercial  statistics,  scientific  essays,  where  he  gets 
no  credit.  I think  volumes  of  travels  might  be  compiled 
from  the  Missionary  Herald,  giving  the  geography,  geology, 
botany,  climate,  soil,  productions  of  different  countries ; going 
deeply  into  the  study  of  antiquities  ; going  thoughtfully  and 
wisely  into  the  traditions  of  the  past,  and  the  customs  of 
society,  and  the  course  of  law,  and  the  divergent  specula- 
tions of  the  heathen  mind ; possessing  a singular  power  to 
hold  the  attention  and  to  instruct  the  understanding.  In 
my  first  ministry,  at  Henniker,  N.  II./ I had  one  church 
member,  a man  in  the  prime  of  his  years,  a gentleman 
moving  widely  in  circles  of  society  out  of  the  town  ; a 
Christian  whose  piety  was  consistent  and  beautiful ; a most 
generous  donor  to  benevolent  objects,  who  read  chiefly  two 
books,  the  Bible  and  the  Missionary  Herald,  lie  read  every 
word  of  the  Missionary  Herald,  from  the  first  issue  to  the 
last,  so  long  as  he  had  strength  to  read.  I did  not  then 
understand  fully  the  charm  of  that  missionary  reading  to 
his  mind.  It  was  like  the  study  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  ; it  was  like  the  reading  of  Fox’s  Book  of  Martyrs  ; 


it  was  like  the  story  of  the  Waldenses  and  the  Covenanters 
and  the  Puritans,  where  peril  and  doubt  and  fear  threw  their 
glamour  over  the  scene ; where  mystery,  and  sorrow,  and 
great  exploits,  and  the  dauntless  mind  mingled  their  colors 
all  together.  All  this  took  the  deepest  hold  of  a Christian 
sympathy  and  a believing  spirit.  All  this  I understood. 
But  I see  now  that  the  Missionary  Herald  has  a literary 
fascination,  in  its  opening  up  of  new  countries  ; in  its  de- 
scriptions of  the  sublime  and  beautiful;  in  its  narratives  of 
various  races  and  of  extraordinary  individuals;  in  its  phil- 
osophies of  divergent  customs,  and  clashing  opinions,  and 
political  revolutions  ; such  as  I did  not  then  appreciate.  No 
one  can  fail  to  see  that  the  missionaries,  from  their  special 
advantages  of  knowledge,  and  from  their  patient  and 
thorough  scholarship,  have  laid  open  new  countries,  have 
mapped  them  out  with  exactness,  have  explored  their  curi- 
osities and  wonders,  have  investigated  the  character  of  their 
inhabitants,  and  the  course  of  God’s  providence,  and  the 
history  of  events,  and  the  philosophy  of  causes,  so  as  to 
repay  any  lover  of  thought,  whether  deep  or  shallow,  for  the 
earnest  reading  of  those  volumes. 

In  the  department  of  philology  and  of  Biblical  transla- 
tion, the  works  of  missionaries  go  tar  beyond  all  other 
achievements  of  scholarship.  Not  even  German  professors, 
with  their  indefatigable  diligence  and  their  marvellous 
classical  attainments,  can  equal  missionaries  in  their  know- 
ledge of  antiquities  and  languages ; in  the  subtle  analysis 
of  ancient,  oriental  and  semi-civilized  thought.  Dr.  Jonas 
King,  in  Greece,  did  not  find  his  match  in  all  that  empire  of 
ancient  renown  and  intellectual  gifts.  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin, 
in  Robert  College,  Constantinople,  can  tell  the  most  learned 
Mohammedan  more  than  he  ever  knew  before  of  the  Koran, 
and  of  sciences,  and  of  metaphysics,  and  of  law.  Dr. 
Adoniram  Judson,  in  Burmah,  after  years  of  labor,  prepared 


3G 


a lexicon  of  the  English  and  Bminese,  and  gave  the  Bible  to 
those  waiting  millions.  I)rs.  Gnlick  and  Doane,  out  of  the 
jargon  of  confused  babble  in  the  Micronesian  Islands,  have 
constituted  four  distinct  languages,  and  given  to  them 
dictionaries  and  Bibles  and  the  commencement  of  thrilling 
histories  in  each.  Bev.  Dr.  Morrison,  of  China,  after  the 
severest  study  of  fifteen  years,  completed  a Chinese  and 
English  dictionary,  in  six  quarto  volumes,  the  expense  of 
preparation,  translation,  copying  and  publishing  being  sixty 
thousand  dollars.  Dr.  Marshman,  of  China,  translated  the 
entire  woiks  of  Confucius,  a literary  enterprise  of  vast  ex- 
tent ; and  as  bringing  the  Chinaman  into  sympathy  with  the 
English  mind,  and  preparing  him  to  listen  candidly  to  Bible 
truth  and  English  thought,  a work  of  immeasurable  value. 
Dr.  Carey,  of  Serampore,  India,  prepared  and  published 
grammars  of  eight  languages,  and  in  that  printing  estab- 
lishment, wholly  under  the  charge  of  mission  laboieis,  the 
Bible  was  in  the  process  of  translation  and  publication,  at 
one  time,  in  twenty -three  languages. 

A very  large  amount  of  scientific  knowledge  has  been 
acquired  silently  by  missionaries,  and  the  proofs  of  it  are 
found  not  so  much  in  books  (for  their  missionary  duties  are 
an  absolute  prohibition  of  this  kind  of  authorship)  as  in  the 
cabinets  of  our  colleges,  in  the  museums  of  our  cities,  in 
the  articles  of  antiquity  gathered  in  many  houses.  These 
are  bloodless  spoils  won  from  heathen  temples,  fiom  moun- 
tain caverns,  from  the  excavations  of  buried  cities,  from  the 
hoary  receptacles  of  ancient  curiosities.  They  aie  relics  of 
sea  and  land,  relics  of  battle  and  of  quiet  industry,  lelics  of 
unknown  communities  and  of  dead  arts,  relics  of  the  lion  id 
rites  of  pagan  superstition  and  the  horrid  tyrranies  of 
merciless  governments.  All  these  constitute  a science, 
which  is  unequivocal  in  its  teachings  of  God,  and  which 
warns  us,  with  a thousand  lingers  of  admonition,  away  from 


the  devices  of  the  natural  heart.  Hundreds  of  places  of 
interest  in  the  ancient  world,  whose  locality  had  been  fixed 
only  bv  conjecture,  have  been  laid  down  with  accuracy  and 
certainty  in  modern  maps,  only  through  the  exploration  and 
intelligence  of  missionaries.  The  Morning  Star,  a missionary 
ship,  has  made  explorations  widely  and  carefully  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  bringing  out  important  tacts,  before  unknown 
to  the  civilized  and  the  commercial  world.  They  have  laid 
down  islands  before  undiscovered  ; they  have  made  a chart 
of  shoals  and  harbors;  they  have  marked  the  safe  paths  of 
the  sea ; they  have  prepared  the  ignorant  and  ferocious 
natives  tit  receive  the  messengers  of  commerce.  A remark- 
able book,  published  three  years  since  in  London,  entitled 
“ The  Seaman’s  Guide  to  the  North  Pacific,’’  with  an  account 
of  winds,  and  weather,  and  channels,  and  harbors,  and  com- 
mercial exchanges,  says,  “ The  missionaries  of  Micronesia 
and  the  commanders  of  the  Morning  Star  have  performed 
more  explorations,  and  published  the  same  to  the  world, 
than  has  been  done  by  the  British  navy  since  the  days  of 
Vancouver,  and  by  the  American  navy  since  the  days  of 
Wilkes.  Ships  of  the  navy  give  all  shoals  and  dangerous 
places  a wide  berth,  unless  they  run  upon  them  in  the  night, 
or  are  specially  instructed  to  examine  them ; the  Morning 
Star  has  diligently  sought  them  out  and  put  mariners  upon 
their  guard.  The  seventeenth  volume  of  Smithsonian 
Contributions  to  Knowledge  has  this  testimony:  “There  is 
no  class  of  men  upon  the  earth,  considered  as  scholars  or 
as  gentlemen,  who  have  earned  for  themselves  a more  dis- 
tinguished reputation  than  the  missionaries.  Their  labois 
and  self-denial,  their  endurance  in  their  high  aim  of  philan- 
thropy and  their  great  abilities  are  worthy  of  admiration. 
Their  contributions  to  history,  to  ethnology,  to  philology,  to 
geography,  to  religion  and  literature  form  a lasting  monu- 
ment to  their  fame.  11.  II.  Houghton,  Esq.,  late  consul  at 


38 


the  Sandwich  Islands,  says,  “ We  doubt  if  a purer  body  of 
men  than  these  missionaries  ever  combined  together  in  the 
same  undertaking,  and  in  our  opinion  they  have  solved  a 
problem  politically,  which  will  influence  for  centuries  to 
come,  Japan,  China,  and  the  whole  East  Indies.”  It  is  diffi- 
cult for  us,  brethren,  to  understand  how  much  more  definitely 
and  thoroughly  we  know  the  countries  of  the  Old  World, — 
the  varieties  of  climate,  the  fabrics  of  industry,  the  products 
of  the  soil,  the  character  of  the  inhabitants,  the  institutions 
of  government,  the  wonders  of  their  history — than  we  knew 
before  the  missionaries  opened  the  inexhaustible  mine. 
Columbus  was  a great  adventurer  and  discoverer,  but  the 
missionary  enterprise  has  brought  to  view  many  new  worlds 
which  he  never  saw ; has  lifted  out  of  barbarism  and 
wretchedness  many  which  he  discovered,  but  could  not 
civilize.  To  missions  we  owe  the  fact  that  ships  can  sail 
securely  in  those  boundless  seas,  and  that  travellers  can  pass 
from  land  to  land  in  those  uncivilized  realms.  To  missions 
we  owe  the  fact  that  we  can  bring  into  one  systematized, 
harmonious  view  the  past  with  the  present,  and  see  the 
relations  of  imperfect  laws  with  false  religions;  of  the  cor- 
ruption of  morals  with  heathen  rites  ; of  the  desolation  of 
iniquity  with  the  absence  of  the  Gospel.  To  missions  we 
owe  the  fact  that  in  many  a cavern  of  darkness  the  light  of 
God  shineth  ; and  in  many  a habitation  of  cruelty  the  peace 
of  the  primitive  innocence  has  returned  ; and  in  many  a 
nation,  once  sunk  in  sensual  sloth  and  almost  bestial 
imbecility,  intellectual  expansion,  and  moral  elevation,  and 
liberty,  and  accomplishment,  and  hope  have  entered  in.  Had 
it  not  been  for  missions,  there  would  have  been  no  open  door 
for  Burlingame  in  China;  nor  for  Armstrong  and  Phillips  in 
the  Sandwich  Islands;  nor  for  Andrews  in  Japan  ; nor  for 
Brunot  and  Howard  and  Tobey  and  Dodge  among  the 
Indians,  to  introduce  their  new  forms  of  secular  education 


39 


and  their  new  forms  of  political  administration.  Where 
these  reformations  will  end  you  can  no  more  tell  than  you 
could  tell  where  Columbus  was  going  when  he  started  from 
Spain  ; or  what  the  Puritans  were  going  to  do,  when  they 
landed  on  the  20th  of  December,  1020,  on  t lie  frozen  and 
wilderness  shore.  From  small  beginnings  come  the  world’s 
great  overturnings. 

5.  We  should  seek  for  the  enlargement  of  foreign 
missions  because  of  the  vast  and  complicate  system  of 
instrumentalities,  which  God  has  put  into  our  hands  for 
human  salvation.  In  most  of  the  agencies,  which  attract 
attention  for  their  intellect,  skill  and  power,  we  discover, 
not  only  an  immediate  use,  but  an  ultimate  end.  The  art 
of  printing  brought  in  a great  increase  of  knowledge  among 
the  civilized  nations;  it  also  prepared  the  way  for  the  spread 
of  the  Gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  mighty  quick- 
ening of  mind  and  of  enterprise  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
which  led  to  the  discovery  of  a new  world,  to  the  navigation 
of  all  seas,  to  the  unprecedented  expansion  of  commerce 
and  of  trade,  to  the  settlement  of  new  countries,  to  the 
building  up  of  republican  empires,  has  poured  its  streams 
of  spiritual  blessing  into  all  lands.  England’s  drum-beat  is 
heard  over  the  world,  and  England’s  voice  of  entreaty  to 
perishing  men  to  be  saved  is  heard  wherever  her  drum-beat 
sends  its  morning  rally.  Our  own  immense  traffic,  by  the 
slow-going  packet  or  by  the  swift  steamer,  taking  the  bee- 
line track  of  the  railroad  or  the  circuitous  paths  of  the 
wagon,  visits  all  islands  and  explores  all  corners  of  the  habit- 
able world,  but  everywhere  it  carries  the  message  of  Jesus. 
The  Gospel  gives  to  these  strong  governments  their  power ; 
it  is  but  meet  that  these  strong  governments  should  render 
back  their  tribute  of  protection  to  the  Gospel.  Thus  it 
happens  that  there  can  be  no  development  of  mechanical 


40 


forces  and  manufacturing  progress  ; no  great  city  built  up, 
with  its  ten  thousand  springs  of  action  ; no  wise  government 
consolidated  into  a perfect  nationality  ; no  school  or  college, 
which  educates  the  young  for  a noble  discipline ; no  dis- 
covery, which  brings  in  new  comforts  to  a million  of  homes ; 
no  sewing  machine,  that  does  the  work  of  a hundred  fingers  ; 
no  power-loom,  that  dismisses  the  weary  laborer  to  an  early 
rest ; no  reaper  or  mowing  machine,  that  saves  the  products 
of  the  earth  from  a storm  ; that  does  not,  at  the  same  time, 
indirectly  forward  the  great  Gospel  aim  of  salvation.  And 
doubtless  it  will  appear,  in  the  last  Great  Bay,  when  God 
puts  all  things  in  their  true  relation  and  proportion,  that 
mechanical  inventions  and  triumphs  of  science  and  utility 
of  arts  were  designed,  not  so  much  for  material  comforts,  as 
for  the  soul’s  everlasting  life. 

God  will  bring  all  the  kingdoms,  and  dominions,  and 
ingenuities  to  aid  Ilis  cause.  We  have  not  yet  come  to  the 
full  development  of  Christian  energy  and  consecration.  We 
need  a more  godly  and  instructed  ministry.  We  need  a 
more  active  and  holy  church.  We  need  piety  and  faithful 
counsels  in  the  family.  We  need  wise  and  holy  devotion, 
to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  pupils,  on  the  part  of  teachers. 
We  need  an  out-pouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  editors 
of  newspapers,  and  authors  of  books,  and  lecturers  on  the 
platform.  We  need  a sanctified  literature.  We  need  a 
higher  legislation,  placed  on  moral  grounds;  a religious 
jurisprudence,  searching  after  God’s  principles  of  law.  I 
believe  the  progress  of  the  Gospel  is  conquering  its  forces 
and  bringing  in  these  improvements.  1 believe  that  Rev- 
elation is  higher  than  Science,  and  will  yet  make  it  an 
obedient  and  universal  ally.  1 believe  that  God  is  stronger 
than  all  combinations  of  wickedness,  and  that  lie  will  yet 
subdue  them.  His  instrumentalities  aie  complicate  and 


41 


vast,  and  Ilis  promises  are  yea  and  amen.  Hath  He 
spoken,  and  will  lie  not  do  it?  Hath  He  promised,  and 
will  He  not  bring  it  to  pass  ? 

“ What  are  you  accomplishing  in  Africa?”  said  a sceptic 
lately  to  a returned  missionary.  “ We  are  burying  ignorance 
and  degradation,”  was  the  reply.  Burying  ignorance  and 
degradation  ! As  the  farmer  buries  the  weeds,  and  the  briars, 
and  the  tangled  brush,  that  infest  his  pathway  across  his 
fields,  and  then  in  some  future  and  blessed  year,  shall  that 
unprofitable  field,  thistle-grown,  filled  with  noxious  plants, 
the  secret  lair  of  reptiles,  hideous  in  its  deformity,  smile  as 
a garden  and  blossom  as  the  rose.  For  more  than  a thou- 
sand years  did  the  island  provinces  of  England  and  Scotland 
lie  fallow, in  their  spiritual  desolation.  But  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  shone  upon  them,  and  for  the  last  three  hundred  years 
they  have  made  a progress  unsurpassed  in  the  history  of' the 
world,  marvellous  in  the  eyes  of  men.  Christ’s  religion 
brings  in  civilization  and  sciences  and  the  beautiful  refine- 
ments ; a free,  constitutional  government ; the  development 
of  the  individual ; the  exercise  of  untrammelled  rights.  It 
subdues  the  pride  of  the  natural  reason  and  the  sensual 
passions  of  our  nature.  It  awakens  the  love  of  study.  It  leads 
the  intellect,  now  docile  and  humble  and  eagerly  inquisitive, 
to  those  topics  of  study  and  classes  of  evidence,  which 
secure  an  absolute  and  abiding  progress.  Stolid  indif- 
ference, dark  prejudice,  base  indulgence,  the  cruelties  of 
intolerance  and  the  corruptions  of  infidelity — it  chases  them 
all  away,  as  the  sunlight  chases  the  mist  from  the  moun- 
tain’s  brow.  The  truths  which  the  Gospel  reveals  are 
practical  and  valuable.  They  come  home  to  the  wants  of 
business,  to  the  friendships  of  the  family,  to  the  exigencies 
of  temptation  and  of  the  daily  life.  There  is  no  sorrow 
which  the  Gospel  does  not  heal.  There  is  no  selfishness 
which  the  Gospel  does  not  banish.  There  is  no  indolence 


42 


which  the  Gospel  does  not  rouse  out  of  its  sleep.  There  is 
no  corruption  which  the  Gospel  does  not  purify. 

But  its  greatest  victories  are  in  the  inner  soul,  over 
affections  and  aspirations,  which  the  natural  mind  cherishes 
and  delights  in ; over  plans  of  the  life  and  choices  of  the 
will,  which  the  thoughtless  world  regard  as  right.  It  con- 
victs of  sin.  It  points  to  a future  Judgment.  It  shows 
the  need  of  a divine  righteousness  and  atonement.  It  mor- 
tifies self-conceit.  It  crucifies  self-will.  It  leads  to  profound 
repentance.  It  awakens  Gospel  faith.  It  secures  the  pardon 
of  sin  and  the  regeneration  of  the  heart.  It  prepares  for 
the  organization  and  work  of  a holy  church.  It  brings  men 
into  endearing  communion  with  Christ.  It  arouses  a high 
tone  of  spirituality,  implants  a disinterested  benevolence, 
produces  a self-sacrifice  and  a Christian  heroism  and  a 
persistent  toil  for  the  salvation  of  men,  unknown  before, 
impossible  elsewhere. 

And  now,  all  that  is  necessary  for  enlargement  and  for 
large  success  in  the  missionary  work  is,  that  the  churches 
should  fulfil  their  whole  duty  of  holiness,  labor  and  prayer. 
A sense  of  dependence  upon  God  is  the  first  great  step  to 
victory.  It  is  in  vain  for  us  to  plan  for  success  in  any 
department  of  labor  without  trust  in  the  Lord.  Prayer  will 
help  our  studies  in  science.  Prayer  will  quicken  our  insight 
into  business.  Prayer  will  fortify  us  when  the  soul  is 
depressed  and  the  hands  grow  weary.  Prayer  will  make 
our  friendships  more  dear  and  our  recreations  more 
delightful.  But  when  seeking  for  the  salvation  of  the 
heathen,  then,  first  of  all  and  most  of  all,  you  need  to  pray. 
For  there  are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  t his  work,  which  do 
not  impede  your  studies,  nor  your  friendships,  nor  your 
pleasures,  nor  your  business.  The  blindness  of  the  dark 
mind  is  to  be  enlightened  ; the  hardness  of  the  sinful  heart 
is  to  be  subdued  ; the  perversity  of  the  will  is  to  be  over- 


come.  To  secure  these  results  you  need  a supernatural 
power.  You  need  a love  inspired  by  fellowship  with  Christ. 
You  need  the  persistency  and  courage  of  an  overcoming 
faith.  You  need  the  outstretched  arm  of  God  to  lift  moun- 
tains and  fling  them  into  the  sea.  And  all  this  comes  only 
by  importunate,  believing  prayer.  Let  us  spread  abroad 
the  truth  of  Christ.  Let  us  offer  up  ceaseless  supplications 
for  the  triumphs  of  the  Gospel.  “For  Zion’s  sake  I will 
not  hold  my  peace ; and  for  Jerusalem’s  sake  I will  not  rest 
till  the  righteousness  thereof  go  forth  as  brightness,  and  the 
salvation  thereof  as  a lamp  that  burnetii.  And  the  Gentiles 
shall  see  thy  righteousness,  and  all  kings  thy  glory.” 


